Where to Download Drivers for Older Hardware?

[KingOfComputing]

I am looking for drivers for an old Gigabyte GA-8I915PMD (Grantsdale Intel Socket 775) motherboard that came from a Packard Bell PC (an Imedia Desktop PC Model: UT0W-SUN) circa around 2006. The trouble is I seem to have hit a brick wall as I cannot find any mention of the board whatsoever on the Gigabyte support site nor can I find the model of PC on the Packard Bell support download site.

I can only guess that maybe this PC and motherboard came out before drivers were widely distributed online or the drivers get removed when the hardware reaches a certain vintage? Seems odd though that as far as the Internet is concerned this PC and motherboard simply do not seem to exist, unless I'm missing something?

So to the main question, could anyone recommend any good PC driver archive sites where I may be able to find drivers for this system (the motherboard mainly)?

Alternatively, if by some happy coincidence anyone actually has drivers for this machine, I would be eternally grateful if you could upload them so I can get hold of them.

Thank you in advance.

 

[RARRAF]

I am not going to say this will fix your problems but this is a good driver pack it might do
https://drp.su/en

 

[The Paladin]

best way to find compatible drivers (Compaq or dell or HP etc.) is to goto search, select device manager and run it in administrator mode
open properties (right click ) on the item that is showing with a yellow or red triangle.

then in properties, select the details tab, and use the pull down menu at the property section, and select hardware IDs

highlight the first line, right click and copy that
open your favorite browser with search engine (I use google but use what ever floats your boat)

can right click and paste that hardware id into the search...


this will not yield INSTANT results, yet will provide forums, other places and such location that discuss similar people looking for the same hardware id (identical hardware as you no matter what brand of pre mad computer it is being used in)
search , look at links etc. until you find a driver that works for your hardware and operating system

no easy way no, but I have done this a number of times with great success.

NOTE: Stay away from sites called driveridentifier.com, awdit.com etc. they have free software but make you pay to find drivers for your hardware and 90% their drivers are untested and unrelated and a total waste of time.


if you want help post the hardware id here with operating system your using x32 or x64, etc. and I will see what I can find.

 

[The Paladin]

also are you sure that motherboard number is correct ? awfully odd I can find all flavors of the GA-8I915Pxx models but not a trace of MD you sure its not PME?

 

[smorizio]

the last three letters denote packard bell motherboard. used to work for them in mass a long time ago before they folded.
for the motherboard chipset for the intel 775 there on intel web page and been there for years.
google intel chipset drivers. the older drivers are the 9x drivers the newer drivers are the 11x drivers. after you install the newest chipset drivers the sound drivers for most mb are realteck chipset. there two drivers on real web site the hd drivers for the newer chipset and the older ac 97 chipset.

 

[KingOfComputing]

the last three letters denote packard bell motherboard. used to work for them in mass a long time ago before they folded.
for the motherboard chipset for the intel 775 there on intel web page and been there for years.
google intel chipset drivers. the older drivers are the 9x drivers the newer drivers are the 11x drivers. after you install the newest chipset drivers the sound drivers for most mb are realteck chipset. there two drivers on real web site the hd drivers for the newer chipset and the older ac 97 chipset.

Yes, that is right the motherboard is from a prebuilt Packard Bell machine and is definitely a Gigabyte GA-8I915PMD. Would be very grateful if you could provide links to the relevant drivers for this board for the chipset and audio you mention. Also what about the other functions of the board such as the Ethernet controller, IDE/SATA etc, does that all come under the Intel driver (though LAN is usually Realtek I think?).

Also I know this is a stretch, but do you know if there are any drivers for this board that dates back to the Windows 9x series? As I am giving the board to a friend that wants to make a retro gaming rig out of it and wants to use Windows 98 for those awkward post DOS, pre modern Windows games that are very hard to run on current systems.

 

[The Paladin]

I would start by installing widows 98 SE on it.. and then see what's missing... probably not a lot on it.

 

[smorizio]

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/20775/Intel-Chipset-Device-Software-INF-Update-Utility-
the newest version.
https://downloadcenter.intel.com/product/98458/Intel-9-Series-Chipsets
older chipset.
http://www.realtek.com/downloads/downloadsCheck.aspx?Langid=1&PNid=14&PFid=24&Level=4&Conn=3&DownTypeID=3&GetDown=false
http://www.realtek.com/downloads/downloadsCheck.aspx?Langid=1&PNid=23&PFid=23&Level=4&Conn=3&DownTypeID=3&GetDown=false#AC